Apple Releases tvOS 16.4 for Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD

[Michael Scrip]

The elimination of the Ethernet port on the Apple TV is one of the most infuriating and consumer-unfriendly "upsell" tactics I've seen Apple do to date.

On the other hand... the difference between the "normal" Apple TV and the "good" Apple TV is only $20.

In my mind that's gotta be the least-offensive upsell that Apple has ever offered.

For $20 you get an Ethernet port, a Thread radio, and double the storage. That's really not bad.

Though I gotta wonder why Apple even made the "normal" version in the first place. If they only offered the "good" model at $149, that's still cheaper than the previous generation which started at $179.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[entropys]

Yes it is a bit weird, a complication in the supply chain for marginal upsell. What is the point?

The only conclusion I can come to is that Tim Apple wanted to protect margins on the full featured Apple TV but wanted to meet a price point, hence the lower spec version.

 

[sparky672]

Isn't new HomeKit architecture also a part of this (and HomePod's) update? I guess Apple will need to flip the switch on their server.

I think it has to be. tvOS 16.3.x broke some of my HomeKit crap, and so far 16.4 seems to be working better. However, I need 24 hours without having to reboot my router and ATVs before I will be happier.

 

[upandown]

I think it has to be. tvOS 16.3.x broke some of my HomeKit crap, and so far 16.4 seems to be working better. However, I need 24 hours without having to reboot my router and ATVs before I will be happier.

I totally agree. 16.3-16.3.2 has been horrible for HomeKit. My HomePod minis especially, some wouldn't work no matter how many times I did a full reset.

 

[sparky672]

I totally agree. 16.3-16.3.2 has been horrible for HomeKit. My HomePod minis especially, some wouldn't work no matter how many times I did a full reset.

I took the initial HomeKit iOS 16.2 "upgrade" before it was pulled... then later had big tvOS 16.3.x problems with devices that rely upon my Apple TV hub.

So far, tvOS 16.4 seems to working, but it's going to take some time to get my confidence back. What a ride.

 

[melapple]

Guys, we’ve always complained about large tv libraries taking forever to load in the movies app well, guess what, I have not yet updated my 3rd gen Apple TV HD to today’s release but I’m happy to report that my 700 plus movies library loads in about 3 secs (vs about 30 prior to today). They must have changed something server-side

 

[BWhaler]

Library tab still doesn’t load large libraries. So disappointing.

 

[upandown]

I took the initial HomeKit iOS 16.2 "upgrade" before it was pulled... then later had big tvOS 16.3.x problems with devices that rely upon my Apple TV hub.

So far, tvOS 16.4 seems to working, but it's going to take some time to get my confidence back. What a ride.

Mine also appears to be working smoothly. We'll see 🤞🏻

 

[vabello]

I've only occasionally been able to control my Yamaha receiver via HDMI-CEC and the ATV remote volume buttons since 16 came out. Setup is a TiVo and the ATV going HDMI into the TV, the TV doing the input selection, then HDMI out to the receiver for eArc and CEC. For a while I thought the magic was to ensure that the TV had selected the ATV as the input before I turned on the ATV, but even that proved unreliable. The ATV remote power button wouldn't turn on the system any more, and holding the power button would turn off only the ATV not the TV or stereo.
I hope this update makes it all work again like it did with 15.

Why not just run the ATV through the receiver? Does it not support 4K or some feature where you have to go to the TV direct? I’ve had Yamaha receivers and they’ve worked great with the ATV, but they’re always plugged into an HDMI input on the receiver, not via eARC.

 

[ThatGuyInLa]

The key feature in the update is to make your $3000+ OLED TV have the dynamic visual range of a potato. Got it. Thanks.

 

[JosephAW]

Nice sunset for my Apple TV HD user.

 

[Sedulous]

since updating my remote now doesn't work I cant control my Apple TV not even from the iPhone app

Try restarting remote. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203777

 

[smithrh]

Library tab still doesn’t load large libraries. So disappointing.

I've seen your posts about this for a long time. I've had the same issue, but things have absolutely gotten better, and even a bit better with this release - to the point where it's (gasp) fully acceptable.

One thing that still makes me unhappy is the lack of troubleshooting information or progress when the libraries are being worked. If all they did was add a "please wait... importing items" with a progress bar, so much angst would be disappear...

There are processes on the Mac side that the ATV depends on, and the handshake between the two isn't the best, I think mainly because they're trying so hard to be the "it just works" company that they refuse to give status updates for edge cases.

 

[isomorphic]

I've only occasionally been able to control my Yamaha receiver via HDMI-CEC and the ATV remote volume buttons since 16 came out.

I've been lucky that I've always been able to control my Yamaha receiver with the ATV remote, and 16 didn't change that.

My problem is that, I will put the ATV to sleep—whereupon it dutifully and correctly turns off my TV and receiver—but then a couple of minutes later, the Yamaha receiver will power back on. I'm certain it's the ATV doing this, and it started a couple of releases ago. It's as if putting the ATV to sleep only puts it into a light sleep (turning everything else off), then once the ATV finishes some kind of housekeeping it powers itself into a deep sleep, while inadvertently turning on the receiver. Either that or the ATV is waking up a couple of minutes after I sleep it.

Either way, it's annoying as f. I have to wait and then manually power down the Yamaha.

 

[zapmymac]

I've been lucky that I've always been able to control my Yamaha receiver with the ATV remote, and 16 didn't change that.

My problem is that, I will put the ATV to sleep—whereupon it dutifully and correctly turns off my TV and receiver—but then a couple of minutes later, the Yamaha receiver will power back on. I'm certain it's the ATV doing this, and it started a couple of releases ago. It's as if putting the ATV to sleep only puts it into a light sleep (turning everything else off), then once the ATV finishes some kind of housekeeping it powers itself into a deep sleep, while inadvertently turning on the receiver. Either that or the ATV is waking up a couple of minutes after I sleep it.

Either way, it's annoying as f. I have to wait and then manually power down the Yamaha.

Years ago, Netflix app (backgrounding) was the culprit for this issue. I don’t have this issue, so I can’t assist.

 

[_Spinn_]

Still wish I could update my AppleTV through the Home app like I can with my HomePods.

 

[Surf Monkey]

TV App is still garbage. Less buggy but still effectively minimized your “up next” to a single sad row at the top with no splash images in the big top area.

I make a specific point of not opening the TV App anymore. Shame on you for making it worse and worse, Apple. Blasting us with ads for your shows at every single possible opportunity? It makes me far LESS likely to check them out.

 

[-Gonzo-]

Shame on you for making it worse and worse, Apple. Blasting us with ads for your shows at every single possible opportunity? It makes me far LESS likely to check them out.

Each to their own but I find it useful at times, it’s not like all you see is just ATV+ shows as I’m seeing content ‘recommendations’ from all connected services be it sub based or from free to stream apps.
The auto trailers were a little annoying though, but as you can turn those off now it’s not so much of an issue.

 

[jonnysods]

I got the new ATV 2 weeks ago after having the first gen on the tiny black puck model (I think its 2nd or 3rd gen).

It’s an absolute pleasure to use!!!

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I'm amazed my 4th gen that I purchased in 2015 is still getting updates.

 

[dotnet]

The tvOS 16.4 update can be downloaded over the air

The air plays actually no role in this at all. It just happens to be around because, well, it always is.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Each to their own but I find it useful at times, it’s not like all you see is just ATV+ shows as I’m seeing content ‘recommendations’ from all connected services be it sub based or from free to stream apps.
The auto trailers were a little annoying though, but as you can turn those off now it’s not so much of an issue.

It’s garbage. User hostile garbage that’s just one heinous Apple TV show add. They don’t even allow users the splash screen for shows they’re already watching. Cynical, money grabbing BS.

 

[mjs916]

Hopefully this will also fix the near-constant lagginess and connection-dropping of the remote, and the wifi issues...

A friend of mine has complained about this also. I haven’t had the issues.

 

[-Gonzo-]

Not sure if this was a thing before but you can disable the auto trailers in the TV app.

Accessibility > Motion > Auto-Play Video Previews

Ok so there appears to be a bit of a trade off with this, by disabling auto play video previews it also disables auto play for Up Next when watching a series.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Ok so there appears to be a bit of a trade off with this, by disabling auto play video previews it also disables auto play for Up Next when watching a series.

Proving yet again that Apple is not committed to a consistent, logical, user focused interface. They just want to bombard you with Apple shows. The days of elegant and useful human interface design are LONG over at Apple.